The internment is considered to have been a manifestation of racism – though it was implemented to mitigate a security risk which was believed that Japanese Americans posed, the scale of internment in proportion to the Japanese American population far surpassed similar measures taken against German and Italian …

What was the reasoning of the United States government for placing thousands of Japanese Americans into internment camps? -Japanese Americans were quarantined to prevent a small pox outbreak. -The U.S. government wanted to offer protection to Japanese Americans.

The attack on Pearl Harbor also launched a rash of fear about national security, especially on the West Coast. In February 1942, just two months later, President Roosevelt, as commander-in-chief, issued Executive Order 9066 that resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans.

During the six months following the issue of EO 9066, over 100,000 Japanese-Americans found themselves placed into concentration camps within the United States. These concentration camps were called “relocation camps.”

About two-thirds of all Japanese Americans interned at Manzanar were American citizens by birth. The remainder were aliens, many of whom had lived in the United States for decades, but who, by law, were denied citizenship.

Civilian Assembly Centers

• Arcadia, California (Santa Anita Racetrack, stables) (Santa Anita assembly center)
• Fresno, California (Fresno Fairgrounds, racetrack, stables)
• Marysville / Arboga, California (migrant workers’ camp)
• Mayer, Arizona (Civilian Conservation Corps camp)
• Merced, California (county fairgrounds)

On February 25, the federal government announced that Japanese Canadians were being moved for reasons of national security. In all, some 27,000 people were detained without charge or trial, and their property confiscated. Others were deported to Japan.

Of the over 23,000 Japanese in Canada at the time, more than 75% were Canadian citizens. All were labeled enemy aliens. Local newspapers and radio stations continuously reported that Japanese spies were in their communities and would help the enemy when they invaded.

Beginning 24 February 1942, around 12,000 of them were exiled to remote areas of British Columbia and elsewhere. The federal government stripped them of their property and pressured many of them to accept mass deportation after the war. Those who remained were not allowed to return to the West Coast until 1 April 1949.

“Enemy Aliens” and Internment Operations Under the authority of the WMA, Canada interned 8,579 enemy aliens in 24 receiving stations and internment camps from 1914-1920. Interned Canadians were also disenfranchised during the course of the war.

Some were Canadian-born or naturalized British subjects. They were held in 24 receiving stations and internment camps across the country — from Nanaimo, BC, to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Many were used as labour in the country’s frontier wilderness….Ukrainian Internment in Canada.